Manners Comedy

He said she was tolerable. Two mornings later, he could not say a word. Elizabeth Bennet heard Mr. Darcy dismiss her from four feet away. She turned the insult into Meryton's joke before the assembly ended. Then his horse shies beside Longbourn, and he is carried into the Bennets' house with cracked ribs, a strapped wrist, no voice, and no prospect of returning to Netherfield before the eighteenth day. Mr. Bennet adds one condition: anything Darcy wishes to say to the household must go on the sisters' old schoolroom slate, in letters large enough for the whole room to read. Every request, ...

First published in 1975, The Unexpurgated Code is a gloriously improper manual of survival and manners for social climbers, elegant impostors, wounded underdogs and anyone attempting to navigate the absurdities of civilized life. Across hundreds of indispensable lessons, Donleavy dispenses fearless advice on improving your accent, choosing the correct neighbours, surviving disastrous parties, behaving at funerals, confronting the rich and powerful, and preserving one's dignity during even the most unlikely personal catastrophe.

One enduring bachelor, one determined fixer, and a marriage settlement that refuses to behave. Viscount Aubrey Denham has reluctantly agreed to a dutiful match with a suitable young lady. Her charming, “artistically inclined” brother arrives to secure the contract, recognizes a fellow “enduring bachelor” at once, and quietly begins sabotaging the engagement in favor of an even more unsuitable understanding. Lord Aubrey Denham has spent years evading the young ladies his formidable mother parades before him. His “inclination” is understood, but not excused; his duty is still to ...

Julian Fellowes, creator of the Emmy-Award winning TV series Downton Abbey, established himself as an irresistible storyteller and a deliciously witty chronicler of modern manners in his first novel, Snobs, a wickedly astute portrait of the intersecting worlds of aristocrats and actors. "The...

Introduction written and read by Rachel Maddow Narrated by Frances McDormand The first novel in the beloved Tales of the City series, Armistead Maupin’s bestselling San Francisco saga, and inspiration for the Netflix original series, Tales of the City “A consummate entertainer who has...

When a young woman trades places with her noble cousin, their innocent ruse leads to true love in this sparkling new Regency-era romantic comedy of manners from the author of Mr. Malcolm’s List. When Arabella Grant’s wicked aunt dies suddenly, both Arabella and her cousin Lady Isabelle...

‘My name is Harriet Manners, and I am a geek.’ Books 1 – 3 in the bestselling, award-winning GEEK GIRL series. GEEK GIRL Harriet Manners knows that a cat has thirty-two muscles in each ear, a “jiffy” lasts a hundredth of a second, and the average person laughs fifteen times per day...

In Modern Manners, cultural guru P. J. O'Rourke provides the essential accessory for the truly contemporary man or woman - a rulebook for living in a world without rules. Traditionally, good manners were a means of becoming as bland and invisible as everyone else, and thus of avoiding calling attention to one's own awkwardness and stupidity.

Setting A frost-bitten Regency house party at Ashbourne Hall, where candlelight, claret, family debts, and a lake with excellent dramatic instincts all conspire to make Tuesday socially fatal. Hook A debt-bargained engagement becomes a murder investigation when the most irritating man at dinner dies before anyone can decide whether romance, ruin, or dessert should have gone first. Promise A closed-door, banter-rich Regency romance with a true happily ever after, paired with a fair-play country-house mystery built from ledgers, servants’ memories, poisonous manners, and clues that behave ...

A terribly funny and lovably louche novel about five friends growing older, if not always up, from Andrew Martin, author of Early Work and Cool for America. “All four narrator performances are consistently humorous, real, and winning." — Kirkus (Earphones Award Winner) This program features...

A Reese's Book Club Pick and New York Times Bestseller “Fans of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine will love The Cactus.” —Red magazine An unforgettable love story that shows sometimes you have to embrace the unexpected. Susan Green is like a cactus: you can't get too close. She likes...

Two gentlemen. One shared suite. A Season already deciding their story. When impeccably composed Mr. Julian Harcourt and irresistibly unpredictable Lord Adrian Fenwick are assigned adjoining accommodations at Penworth House, society anticipates intrigue, speculation, or at the very least entertainment. What it does not anticipate is companionship. What begins as polite inconvenience becomes, to society’s great satisfaction, a story. Observed by matrons, interpreted by gossip columns, and subtly arranged by well-meaning allies, the Season’s most discussed gentlemen discover that ...

The fantasy novel you've always wished Jane Austen had written Shades of Milk and Honey is exactly what we could expect from Jane Austen if she had been a fantasy writer:Pride and Prejudice meets Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. It is an intimate portrait of a woman, Jane, and her quest for love...

Campbell Flynn, art historian, professor, and fêted fixture of the literati, always knew that when his life came crashing down, it would happen in public—yet he never imagined that a single year in London would expose so much. He’s never taken other people half as seriously as they take themselves, which is the first of his mistakes. The second is a new project: opportunistic and precisely calibrated to rake in a fortune.

In Miss Julia Hits the Road, she is becoming increasingly concerned about her gentleman friend, Sam, who has suddenly started wearing cowboy boots, sending her flowers, and writing bad poetry. And when he shows up on a Harley-Davidson Road King and asks her to hop on, she's convinced he's lost his mind. Meanwhile, her invaluable housekeeper, Lillian, has been evicted from her home by her greedy landlord. Deciding that Lillian's need is greater than her own fear (not to mention loss of dignity), Miss Julia takes Sam up on his offer and sets off on a motorcycle Poker Run.

Coworkers at a legendary but troubled New York City museum struggle with issues large and small over the course of one extraordinary day in this whip-smartnovel that is “satirical and incisive...like nothing you’ve ready before” (Town & Country). When Diane Schwebe, the director of a major...

A gentleman with too much duty. A bookseller with far too many opinions. And a society that notices everything—except what truly matters. England, 1819. Lord Edmund Ashworth has perfected the art of polite evasion. He smiles when required, dances when cornered, and avoids marriage with admirable consistency. Unfortunately, society—and his formidable mother—have decided it is time he be seen. Enter Benjamin Hartley: son of a bookseller, reader of forbidden literature, and a man who does not belong at garden parties… yet refuses to leave them quietly. One chance encounter over ...

AN UNEXPECTED RIVAL The eighth volume of the Episodios Nacionales — the great historical novel cycle of Spain — Cádiz carries Gabriel Araceli into the besieged island city where Spain's first constitution is being born, and where a drawing-room intrigue will end in blood on the sand. It is 1810, and Cádiz is the last free city in Spain. While French cannon fire arcs across the bay and the newly convened Cortes debates sovereignty, freedom of the press, and the abolition of feudal lordships, Gabriel finds himself entangled in a world of tertulias and domestic politics more dangerous ...

Julian Fellowes, creator of the Emmy-Award winning TV series Downton Abbey, established himself as an irresistible storyteller and a deliciously witty chronicler of modern manners in his first novel, Snobs, a wickedly astute portrait of the intersecting worlds of aristocrats and actors. "The...

Grumble globally. Laugh locally. Step into the polished shoes of Britain’s most opinionated old lords as they blunder, bicker, and sip their way through international diplomacy, domestic crises, and improperly brewed tea. Whether facing haunted Scottish inns, Far Eastern tea rituals, or bridge scandals in the drawing room, these noble curmudgeons always carry one thing: a deeply held belief that everything was better in 1903. The Noble Art of Grumbling is a sharp, satirical anthology of short stories for fans of P.G. Wodehouse, dry British wit, and eccentric gentlemen hopelessly out of ...